Teen Titans: Cursed
by Starved of Song
Summary: Beast Boy is concerned that Raven isn't eating, so he starts to watch her at meals. Because of this, Starfire is the only one who notices the sinister man in the back corner at the chinese food place. Now the Titans are racing against the clock to save a mutated human and stop an evil sorcerer's plot to destroy them all with an army of the Cursed. BBXRAE, ROB/STAR, CY/BB
1. Teen Titans Episode 1: Cursed (Part I)

**A/N:**

 **Necessary Introduction to this fic:**

 **I'm aging them all. During the time of the show I'm placing them all at 16 or older. During the time of this fic, Beast Boy (who is the youngest) is halfway through being 18.**

 **I decided to try and write this like an episode would have played story flows in a chopped, scene-based way, with jumps ahead in time and information. Hopefully it flows alright for you, the reader, and doesn't come off confusing at all. If you guys like this style, it'll lead to a series of episodes and arcs.**

 **I like to imagine there's a commercial break between parts of the 'episode'.**

 **Finally, this won't be incredibly long, but will instead be like an episode involving Raven/BB character development and the development of a more mature relationship between the two of them. It was never meant to be their romantic origin story, merely the way that they continued on after Tara's absence in their lives. If I continue writing more "episodes" I'll continue their relationship as well! Not to mention the relationships of Rob/Star, Cy/Bumble and others who may appear throughout the series.**

 **If you like the story, let me know! If there are some characters you want to see, story lines you want delved into, or relationships you'd like an 'episode' on,  
**

* * *

Every morning she'd come downstairs a little early and drink herbal tea over an old book. Watching her lightly sip it as it steamed in the cool morning air made him sick to his stomach. Why didn't she eat? Beast Boy couldn't remember a time when he didn't crave a huge, tofu breakfast. If he hadn't eaten before Raven got her tea, he'd literally feel his stomach eating itself. He tried asking her once about her breakfast habits.

"Why don't you eat in the morning?"

Raven simply took a dramatic sip from her mug, glaring from under her blood red chakra.

"Are you...trying to lose weight?"

This time she slammed the mug down and glared.

Beast Boy yelped and backed up. "No? Okay, cool." He scurried away to the kitchen where Cyborg was flipping pancakes.

"Man, you're an idiot."

"What! Just because-"

Cyborg flipped a pancake at him, that Beast Boy caught in his teeth on instinct. However, he bit down too hard and the rest fell helplessly to the floor.

"You can't ask a girl about her weight, especially someone like Raven who could drown you in some dark abyss."

Beast Boy scoffed. "Please, she's not offended by things like regular girls." He leaned in close, and said "She's not regular, dude."

When he turned back to 'apologize', Raven had vanished from the table. Her book had gone with her, and so Cyborg commented that she probably wouldn't be back.

There was a routine to Raven.

After breakfast, Beast Boy knew that she'd either go to her room, or disappear into one of the unused rooms in the tower, and there were a ton of them. So for the first few hours of the day, lack of crime permitting, Raven would be a shadow in the walls. Beast Boy, however, was all over the house in the morning. While he wasn't a 'morning person' per-say, he would play video games, exercise, run outside or go for a swim all before lunch. His animal side craved movement and stimulation, while his lazy human side was happy to lounge on the couch and channel surf. So, after lunch (which was also a huge meal) he'd end up on the couch for a few hours. After that it was anything and everything until dinner. Not that anyone cooked dinner, they'd usually go out for pizza. It was then that Beast Boy would see Raven again.

She'd emerge from her shadows and dusty pages, and rejoin her companions for an evening feast. That was all he ever saw her eat.

"Why doesn't she eat?" Beast Boy growled into the floor mid push-up. Robin was in the corner of the gym hammering away at a punching bag.

Cyborg was bench pressing the weight of an elephant. "Why do you keep asking me this, man?" He let the weight rest on its stand and sat up. "She eats, I've seen it."

"Yeah, breakfast and dinner. Do you know what breakfast and dinner is to Raven?" He pushed fingers down on his hand. "One mug of herbal tea and one slice of pizza."

"It's not always pizza."

"Okay, about fourteen french fries or one salad, or… I don't know, but it's not healthy."

Robin joined them, sweating and wiping his face and shoulders with a towel. He was wearing loose, martial-arts type clothes and no shoes. "What are you saying?"

Beast Boy felt his ears flatten a little. "I'm not accusing her of anything… you know, self-harming, but shouldn't we still be concerned about this?"

Cyborg shook his head. "You can't ask a girl about her weight or her eating habits. I _told_ you this."

"I don't know, Cyborg." Robin interjected. "If she's really depressed or becoming unhealthy, it's our job as teammates to watch out for her."

"Then YOU should talk to her, Robin." Cyborg said loudly and clearly in a jab at Beast Boy. "She'd actually listen to you."

"Not cool, dude." Beast Boy let himself fall forward, then caught himself in another set of push ups.

…

When it became sunset, as it did every day, you could always find Starfire watching the spectacle from the rooftop. Now, normally, Raven was disinclined to enjoy the last few rays of sun. Their death brought about a night of darkness and disquiet, a time of self-reflection and, even worse, self-loathing. Yet, this particular sunset was bathed in the early stars of the autumnal equinox, which was a powerful time in the sorceress' calendar. It would be another month before the equinox arrived, but Raven wanted to soak up as much as she could before and after it came. She sat alongside Starfire, well, floated (honestly), in silence. Starfire was less inclined to break these "glorious" moments on earth with idle chatter.

Raven had a theory about that.

While it may always seem that Starfire is incapable of communicating through normal means, Raven had noticed upon one or two powerful sunsets that Starfire was capable of nonverbal communication. Meaning that, at this momentous time of day, or twilight, Starfire would float side by side with Raven, in full knowledge of her existence, and say nothing. However, once the sun had finally dipped below the horizon, Starfire would regain her footing and calmly rest her hand on Raven's shoulder before departing below. Furthering Raven's analysis into the matter, when questioned about the significance of the sunset Starfire explained (in too many words) that the setting of the sun was a momentous journey from one day into the next. The death of today and the birth of "today" again.

"For we are all born in darkness, before discovering life's glorious light." Starfire smiled at Raven, in a knowing way.

So Raven's theory was this:

Starfire did not solely communicate babble. She communicated _through_ babble. It was all she really had, an outsider to this world of different people and customs. Like a foreigner learning a language her babble was merely to compensate for a lack of knowing the proper words for things. It wasn't even her adorable slip-ups now and again that Raven rolled her eyes at, but rather every filler word in her sentences was to make up for lost communication. What Starfire didn't know, was that her attempt at compensation was what created her miscommunication in the first place. What Starfire said with fifty words, she meant it in only ten.

Probably.

"After all, that's just my theory." She whispered out loud as she scribbled the last of her words into a large notebook.

Raven stretched out on an old dusty sofa that was nestled at the edge of an empty room. The door was farthest away, and next to her was a bedside table covered in a sheet. She actually hated this room. It was neglected and dark and had little to no color to it. While Raven possessed many a dusty old book, she purposefully allowed them to collect dust to reserve their dignified, ancient appearance. This was just sad. However, it was the most recent in her rotation of old, empty rooms hidden around the tower, so she'd hunkered down for the afternoon. But her time was up, as dinner was approaching. Her team would miss her if she didn't appear, and would surely come looking for her in an obnoxiously caring way.

She smiled.

…

At dinner, which was chinese food this time, Beast Boy paid special attention to Raven's plate. It was practically bare, but there was a surprising sweet on the edge of it. Something made from cherries and cream. The chinese food place that they'd picked was very inauthentic, and therefore served a lot of American foods as well. Beast Boy supposed that it was some sort of tart or piece of pie. Either way, he figured that if Raven was indulging in things that were sweet and fattening like that, she couldn't be on a diet.

Yet her plate was still bare. Not even because she had eaten it all, but because she'd barely brought anything back from the buffet.

"Forgive my question, but why is that man staring at us?" Starfire asked through a mouthful of white rice.

Robin shrugged next to her, shoveling food into his mouth with chopsticks, not even bothering to look at the man.

"People always stare at us, Starfire." Raven commented, swirling noodles with a fork. "Don't make eye contact."

Unlike Raven, who purposefully didn't give the man attention, Cyborg turned fully around in the booth, throwing his arm over the back to better crane his neck. "Who we talkin' about, now?"

"That man, in the dark coat. In the back corner?" Starfire commented, sounding nervous now.

Now even Robin glanced up, and Beast Boy turned, too. He and Cyborg had squished Raven into the booth against the wall, so that Robin and Starfire could sit together. That put Beast Boy on the end, and so had to put a leg out to turn fully to see the man.

Starfire was right to become nervous. It was just like their alien girl to forget to mention to everyone, that not only was a man in a dark coat staring at them, but that half of his face was scaly and red, with a long red and black horn protruding out of his black hair on the scaly side. He had pure black eyes and was watching them intently.

Robin swallowed. "Well, that can't be normal."

Beast Boy looked at him incredulously. "You're tellin' me! Who walks around in public with half a scale face?"

"Maybe he's like us. A hero out to eat." Raven suggested, yet she shivered. Her optimism surprised even herself, as she usually was the one to get a bad feeling immediately. In this case, she just wasn't in the mood to get into some brawl. Not with all these people around to panic and fuel her mind with anxiety.

Both Cyborg and Robin shook their heads. Cyborg removed his arm from the back of the booth and settled it on the table. "I don't think so, Raven, but nice try." His arm casually transformed into his sonic blaster. "Should we...engage?"

Robin stood up from the booth. The man did the same. "There are too many people here. I guess I'll go deal with him."

Beast Boy coughed. "By yourself…?"

Robin didn't answer. Instead of continuing, the man glared at Robin and promptly left the establishment.

"I think we've got a fight anyway. Come on, team. Dinner's over." Robin paid and led them all out. Beast Boy figured Raven wouldn't have finished her plate anyway, but when he turned to give her one last glance, he saw her grab the cherry tart and pop it in her mouth nonchalantly before scooting out of the booth after Cyborg. She chewed with quiet dignity.

When they emerged into the street, it was dark and quiet. There weren't many leftover people lingering about, but they really should have been. It was still pretty early in the evening.

"What do you want?" Robin demanded.

When the man opened his mouth to speak, Beast Boy noticed that half of his teeth were in fangs on the red side. He vaguely wondered if the red man had a tail as well under that coat. "I am Kane, and I need your damn help."

Beast Boy scrunched his brows in confusion. "Sooo… not a fight?"

"No." He growled.

"Then," Starfire queried. "Why do you seem so angry with us?"

He raised one clawed hand, it's black talons were long and angry looking. "One of _your_ enemies has mutated me into _whatever_ this is. I blame _you_ for not catching them, before they turned me into a monster."

"You're not selling your case, buddy." Cyborg crossed his arms. "Who turned you into...whatever you are."

Kane narrowed his eyes. "Believe me, you wanna take this case. It started with the fangs…" He paused. "Suddenly...suddenly I had a horn and scales, my eyes darkened. Now I have these razors on my hands. It's spreading."

Starfire gasped in sympathy.

"Please." He hung his head, his horn nearly touching Raven's side as they circled around him. "This curse is eating me alive."

"But who did this?" Raven brought the man back to the original question.

"I… don't know."

Robin's face was hard. "Then how do you know it was one of _our enemies_?"

"One day I was out running in the park. I passed out on the path, and woke up in the forest outside the city in the mountains. My teeth were all sharp, my tongue was bleeding where I scraped it. I was so confused, and it took me a day to find a gas station and call for help." He ruffled in his pockets. "I found this note when I woke."

Robin snatched it and smoothed it out. His team gathered around him to read it. Scratched in red ink on an old piece of parchment it read: **The Titans will Fall**

It seemed like enough evidence for Beast Boy. He pulled away from the group and nodded to the guy. After a moment, though he asked, "Wait...what _are_ you supposed to be?"

"A half-dragon, half-human." Raven supplied. "A drake, draconian, or halfling."

"Whoa. Dude, even I can't turn into a dragon!" Beast Boy smiled his toothy smile at Kane, who seemed only to grow worse.

"I'm sorry," Robin began, looking up from the note. "But until we look into this, you can't be allowed to go roaming the streets of Jump City. You might be a spy plotting against us, or you might be who you say you are and hurt an innocent on accident. Either way, we're going to have to take you into custody." Kane gave Robin a hateful, resigned look, before he was handcuffed. Cyborg took his arm and they started to walk.

The half-dragon looked at Raven now. "If you know what is happening to me, please. PLEASE, cure me."

Now everyone was looking at her, and suddenly she felt self-conscious. "I can try, but don't get your hopes up."

"Thanks, Raven." Robin nodded, proud of his teammate. "In the meantime, Cyborg and I will analyze your note. If it's really from whoever changed you, and you're not just lying to us, we'll figure out it's origin and put a stop to this mad scientist."

"Or sorcerer." Cyborg commented.

"If they're infecting the people of Jump City, OUR city, then we need to put a stop to it." Robin slapped a fist in his open palm.

They walked the dark, seemingly empty streets in the chilly September air, and after a while returned home with their prisoner in hand.

…

Kane was now a full-time resident of Titan's Tower. He was far too conspicuous to be holed up in a regular jail cell, and not proven guilty or dangerous enough to be sent to a maximum security prison like Cinderblock, Plasmus and Overload. They weren't even sure if he _was_ dangerous. The whole way back to the Tower he remained a quiet, resigned prisoner who only seemed to be angry and filled with foreboding misfortunes. Depressed, even. Beast Boy had attempted to cheer him up, but Kane never even so much as responded or looked at him. At one, small moment he'd cracked a smile, but that was only because Beast Boy had tripped when he was walking backwards, and Beast Boy hadn't even seen Kane smile anyway.

Raven did.

She couldn't help but stare at his half-dragon form. His face was all too familiar. She kept having visions. Visions of spellbooks and wizards that _seemed_ kind and understanding at first, but then morphed into towering lizards that breathed green fire and -

"Raven?"

She looked up from her book. Raven was nestled on the couch in the Titan's living room, remembering the events from last night. She'd read the same paragraph fourteen times, and couldn't remember anything past "The first sorcerer to successfully…" and that was it. Her mind was elsewhere, and Robin knew it.

"What?" She bit out quietly.

"I just thought, that maybe you wanted to talk?" Robin leaned against the back of the couch, looking over her head. "You haven't been eating, I hear. Even less now that our new guest has entered the Tower."

"Who said I haven't…" Raven didn't finish. She was smart enough to guess and tired enough to stop caring. "I'm fine."

Robin finally looked at her. "Is that your final answer?"

"For now." She almost smiled at him to ease his mind, but he could hear the intent in her voice without it.

The door to the living room slid open and Cyborg stepped in with Starfire floating next to him.

"Just remember to keep me posted if there's a change in the… situation." Robin gave Raven a pointed look.

"You'll be the first to know." She replied, sincerely. After realizing that reading was pointless now that there was company in the room, Raven retreated to her regularly scheduled rotation of the tower's forgotten corners.

When Beast Boy came downstairs for lunch that day, he noticed that a forgotten pen was lying on the counter in the kitchen. It was old, ornate and probably should have had an eagle feather attached to it for how antique it looked. Garfield had never seen it before, and when he picked it up in curiosity, it sparked in his hands and shocked his fingertips. He yelped like a puppy and let it fall to the floor where it rolled under the bar counters. He rolled his eyes in a loud sigh and got down on his knees to retrieve it. The only explanation for this was that this pen was Raven's. Who else would own something so old, dark and dusty that shocked you with energy when you touched it? And he'd let it roll under the nasty counters. While digging for the instrument, he felt his ungloved fingers touch things he could only guess at. Something squishy here, slimy there, and something that felt oddly like a gumball but grew legs and crawled all over him when he touched it.

"AH!" He ripped his hand back and yipped again.

Footsteps approached behind him. "What are you doing?" She asked in a sarcastic drawl.

 _Raven_. "Uh, well." He turned and scratched the back of his head in a panicked contemplation of what to say. "I-er, that is, I mean…" He gave up and hung his head. "I dropped your pretty pen under the counter."

Raven raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"I'll get it! Hold on!" He scrambled for it this time, coming up finally with the prize in-hand, triumphant. On his green arm was several unidentified, sticky things and a lot of dust on his fingers. Her pen was wrought with dust bunnies, but no other damage was done.

"How did you know it was mine?" She asked, taking it delicately with two fingers.

Beast Boy recovered from his preparation for her anger after realizing she wasn't mad. "Oh, well it just seemed like you." Again she didn't answer. "Uh, you know? Because it's pretty and all sophisticated looking? Like you'd find it in a museum or an old bookstore. NOT that you're like an old book or a museum, er-"

"Thank you."

He stopped. "For what?"

"For telling me that you dropped it, and then getting it for me." She walked away without continuing, and disappeared through the sliding door.

Later, in one of the dusty tower rooms, Raven pulled out her notebook and started writing with her pen. While doing so, she thought back to when Beast Boy had kept looking at her like she was about to explode, but then with relief kept babbling anyway. Raven's theory for Beast Boy was that, if you didn't talk long enough, he'd tell you all that was on his mind eventually. Raven never had to ask him a thing. She was patient, and he didn't like to leave empty space hanging between conversations.

…

The next day, the whole team went to see the prisoner. Robin and Cyborg were still working on the origin of the note, and with limited clues and little to no evidence to suggest otherwise, they were starting to think that they'd have to take the poor Draconian at his word. Robin, however, was still incredibly wary of the subject, and when they all convened in the basement levels of the Tower to interrogate him again (and discuss his options) he was short and blunt.

"There may be no way for Raven to save you."

Raven crossed her arms. "Robin-"

"If she can't save you," he continued over her. "Then we'll have to assume your new...form will be a threat to society. You may be incarcerated to the fullest extent of the law if it's decided that you can't control it."

" _Robin_ ," Raven tried again. "I haven't even started yet."

He nodded. "I know, I just think that we need to be honest and serious about this."

Kane didn't seem upset by it. His sad, depressed demeanor returned to his face. "I suspected as much. As soon as my eyes turned black, I guess I just kinda gave up."

"But, you came to us for help, so surely you are keeping a little hopeful?" Starfire offered in her kind, soft voice.

Out of respect for her sympathy, Kane smiled at her. "Sure."

"In the meantime, you'll be updated on the note you found, and what else we find out." Robin finished.

Cyborg nodded. "Who knows? If someone did mutate you, I'm sure they've got a bigger plan than just sending you after us. No offense man, but you don't look to scary to me."

"Let's not forget these claws, though." Kane joked. "They scrape me up pretty bad when I try to scratch my scales."

Beast Boy was the only one who really laughed. Everyone else just breathed out in nervous pity.

Due to her new task as resident cure tactician, Raven was unable to continue her routine in the dustier parts of the tower. While she could have brought her research with her to those rooms easily, it was far more convenient for Robin to find her in her room when he needed to ask a question or check in. Unfortunately, it was also easy for everyone else to find her, too.

"Raven?" Starfire knocked lightly. Raven set the book down slowly and sighed.

"What?"

"I wondered, perhaps, if you require assistance?" The timid voice replied. "I could read with you, or bring you your favorite grass drink?"

"Tea."

"T-what?"

Raven almost laughed. "The 'grass drink' is called tea. Come in." She rolled her eyes and moved papers and notes around. Using her mind she floated about six books over to her and set them in a pile for Starfire.

After giving Starfire instructions on what to look for in the books, the two spent the next two hours reading, commenting on passages, and (on Raven's part) taking notes. Raven was pleasantly surprised with Starfire's focus and dedication to the task at hand. She barely spoke, and when she did it was to ask a question or point out something on the page. It was a good day in Raven's opinion, and Starfire was happy to be bonding over dusty pages with her best-girl-friend. It was not uncommon for them to spend a few quiet hours together nowadays, as they had grown far closer in the last few years, but each and every time Starfire was so happy.

Raven could always sense the level of Starfire's happiness, and it made her smile.

…

"I, uh, appreciate your help."

Raven had been in the basement of Titan Tower for less than 20 minutes and she was already frustrated. Not only was the curse incredibly powerful and vague in its origin, but her subject of interest was filled to the brim with bitterness, anxiety and worst of all, fear. It was pouring off of him in waves, and he was getting worse with every day. New scales were forming on his face, and his claws got sharper and longer. The fingernails on his other hand were turning black, but were not yet pointed.

"Has anything else happened to you?" She asked, examining the horn on his head. He was bound to a chair by the wrists and ankles.

"I, erm…" He hesitated.

She frowned at him. "What?"

"I think, well, there _may_ be, the possibility of a… tail." He cringed.

Raven felt his embarrassment through her empathy. It was so strong she almost blushed herself, but she kept a straight face. "That's to be expected."

"Can you fix this?" He sounded desperate.

She sighed deeply. "I'm working on it."

"Right, I know, I just-"

"Look," Raven stopped him. "I realize you're having an...issue, but you need to calm down. I'm doing everything I can to help."

He just continued to look at her with fear and frustration. Raven hated it when he looked at her. In his dark eyes she saw memories of the past. A dragon from another time.

"I know you'll do well. I've heard you're strong, smart. I'm just worried."

 _You're strong, Raven_.

She nodded and left him there for Robin to speak with next. She made her way back to the kitchen, where it wouldn't be too quiet. Raven didn't want a quiet place to herself, a place where she might remember.

Beast Boy saw her quietly inch her way into the living room and strategically place herself amongst the chaos, and since there was an argument going on, no one else seemed to notice.

He did.

It wasn't that he was particularly inclined toward Raven, or at least he never felt like he was before, but ever since he'd decided to monitor her eating 'problem' he'd started to notice her every move. It was both annoying and interesting to keep tabs on the enchantress, but it was also (he figured Raven would feel) an invasion of her daily privacy. Not that he cared, after all, didn't everyone always expect him to be annoying and nosy? Isn't that how everyone saw him anyway?

He sighed a little, his ears flattening against the volume that the argument had risen to.

Mas y Menos were screaming spanish at the top of their lungs over… _something_. He still hadn't learned any Spanish besides 'taco', 'hola', what 'mas' and 'menos' actually meant, and 'adios'. He could have sworn that Menos threw in a curse word at one point during the argument, but other than that he was oblivious. He'd ask someone later what the fight was really about. Raven didn't seem upset by the noise being made in the living room. In fact, she sat in the Raven equivalent of bliss around the coffee table with Bumblebee and Aqualad.

 _Almost like she's relieved_. Beast Boy puzzled over this when the fight reached its climax and Cyborg had had enough.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" He grabbed both of the Titan's East members by their scruff and pulled them apart. "You're going to fry my circuits if you keep screaming at that decibel! Now make up and play nice, or I swear I'll have Raven swallow the two of you whole into a dark, deep dimension where you'll never see farther than the end of your noses EVER AGAIN!"

In their defense, the twins couldn't help their bickering; it came so naturally to them, but almost everyone present in the living room couldn't help but thank Cyborg silently for shutting them up. Menos folded his arms in a huff while Mas gave Raven a nervous glance. The two shook hands sarcastically and went to sit on opposite ends of the couch.

"Dragging me in again?" Raven raised an eyebrow at Cyborg who plopped down next to Bumblebee.

"Sorry, but it worked." He gave her a huge grin, but she just rolled her eyes at the Titan's unofficial 'Big Brother'.

Beast Boy wondered if Raven had ever made good on a 'throw you in a dark abyss' threat, but it seemed possible. He also wondered if the 'threat' ever bothered her when they threw it around like that. It would be like Cyborg saying, "I'll have BB here rip your throats out with any razor-sharp predatory teeth of his choosing". It was a good threat, but it was insulting in a way. Like he'd ever do that in a million years. _Would she?_ He didn't think she would. Suddenly, Raven's eyes met him and he yipped internally, looking anywhere but at her.

 _Busted_.

"Sorry to barge in on you guys." Bumblebee kissed Cyborg's cheek. They twined fingers together, much to the discomfort of everyone else not currently in a relationship, which was pretty much everyone but Starfire. "The gang heard you had a monster living in the Tower dungeons and wanted to come see it."

"And we missed you." Aqualad added, charmingly.

"Oh, but he is not a monster." Starfire interjected, carrying snacks from the kitchen and setting them out. "He is a man. A man who is… scaly and red all over. To have a horn is a heavy burden, you know." She shivered at an old memory of pink and black planets.

"And not just because it weighs a ton." Beast Boy joked. Aqualad and the twins chuckled, while Bee smiled politely.

"Can we really see him?"

"I don't think so." Robin appeared then, arms crossed. He was with Speedy, and now everyone was momentarily together. "He's dangerous, I'm headed down now to interview him again." He glanced at Raven for a report.

"I've sensed that it's clearly dark magic that has changed him. He's stable, for now, but his condition worsens each day. I suspect that before long his mind will be destroyed by the creature he is becoming." She finished her report with an air of detachment. Everyone else looked to Robin.

"If that day comes, we won't have a choice but to put him away where the authorities can decide what to do with him." He finished and left.

Bumblebee looked at Starfire. "Is he alright?"

Starfire looked down and shook her head. "I fear that Robin is sad, deep down." She hugged herself. "He does not wish harm to come to this man, this Kane, but he knows that there may not be a kind ending."

Speedy nodded. "Sometimes we have to make hard decisions."

"But Kane was changed by someone, we are sure of it." Starfire threw in, holding onto her optimism.

" _We_ aren't sure of anything yet." Cyborg interrupted. "Robin and I still haven't found the source of the note, and that could mean some serious holes in Kane's story. Mutated against his will or not, he could be waiting to strike at any moment." Starfire seemed to deny this with all her heart.

"What note?"

Cyborg described what had happened the night they found Kane and the note that he claimed was on his body when he woke.

"That doesn't sound good." Aqualad crossed his arms. "You guys need any help?"

"I don't know what you could do. It seems like it's our problem." Cyborg shrugged.

Bumblebee shook her head. "But 'Titans' could mean any of us. Any of the Honorary Titans." She paused. "Or all of them."

They hadn't thought of that, and now that it was a possibility, Cyborg made sure to make a note of it and have Robin issue an alert for all Titans to be on the lookout for anything strange. When Robin returned from below with nothing new to say on the subject, the conversations took different turns every hour or so. It started with status reports from Titan's East, then onto the subject of the whereabouts of Slade (who was still at large somewhere, at least until Robin had full proof that he was dead) but without any whispers or sightings, they let that topic go. Now they were discussing each other, friends and honoraries and what they were up to, relationships (failed ones, too) and finally, video games. Apparently, Raven wasn't informed that she was to hunker down for the next three months while the newest racing, fighting and first-person-shooter games were being hyped and announced as a part of the Autumn madness that was the gaming industry.

She wished she'd brought a book.

Instead, Bumblebee and Starfire had squeezed close to her on the couch to talk over her about their happy relationships with their strong, confident, Team Captain-like boyfriends. She rolled her eyes. Even though video games weren't her thing, the boys seemed to be having a lot more fun with their topic.

"What about you, Raven?" Bumblebee turned the conversation on her. "Last I heard, your previous relationship ended with a book buried somewhere deep in the tower."

Starfire inhaled sharply at the comment, afraid of what Raven might do or say. Instead Raven shrugged. "He needed time to think about what he'd done." She replied, deadpanned.

Bumblebee burst into laughter while Starfire forced a smile. "That's what I like to hear. Show em' who's boss."

Raven stood and stretched. "I think I'll leave you to it." She was about to walk away when Bumblebee grabbed her wrist lightly.

"Wait."

Raven turned and raised a brow.

"Just in case you're interested, there's always Aqualad. I know you once had a thing for him, and frankly he could use some attention. He's a good guy, he'd treat you right."

Starfire paled a little at Bee's forward, hushed declaration. Again, Raven shrugged, then pulled away and left. Starfire then turned to Bumblebee. "I would not speak to Raven about such things. Does Aqualad even have 'the feelings' for Raven?"

Bee smirked. "He's denied it, but I've seen him look at her before. Trust me, Star. I've got a knack for this stuff." Even while basking in the glow of Bumblebee's confidence, Starfire had major doubts about that.

Later that night, after everyone had said their goodbyes, Starfire and Robin were in Robin's room. He was sitting on the bed, about to take off his mask when he asked her, "What were you and Bee talking about?" Starfire gave him an adorably confused look. He stood up and kissed her on the side of the head. "Earlier? When the rest of us were talking about video games?"

She hugged herself sadly. "Well, she and I were discussing you and Cyborg, and how happy we were. But then…" He pulled her gently back down on the bed, her tone of voice made him uneasy. "I fear that Bumblebee may have accidentally offended Raven, though she did not get angry. Merely walked away…"

"Oh," He squeezed her with one arm. "That's alright, Raven's pretty strong." He smiled and finally took off his mask, laying back on the bed. She didn't join him at first.

"Robin, she mentioned the Malchior. The dark creature we faced?" Robin lifted a brow. "She did not seem upset by it, but…"

"You're worried."

"Mhm." She lay back with him and they stared at the ceiling.

"Beast Boy doesn't think she's been eating." Robin sighed. "This new guy in the basement can't be good for her health."

Starfire's mind clicked and she gasped. "Because he is another dragon?"

He nodded. "Come on," He pulled her close. "Let's worry about it in the morning."


	2. Teen Titans Episode 1: Cursed (Part II)

The next morning, Raven was again in the Titan's basement. She briefly wondered at the condition that the patient was in, as he was wedged between a bunch of bricks and steel girder. In front of his small square space was a chain link fence. It wouldn't keep a dragon out, but it would hold him. The Titan's didn't have a 'dungeon' like Titan's East had joked about, so they made do with a little creativity. Robin and Cyborg were working on an impenetrable glass-faced prison that would be both comfortable and able to keep him under control if he went berserk. At least until they got him to the authorities. _Not that he's incredibly keen on escaping_. She thought to herself.

Kane was huddled in the back corner by the steel girder. He had a cot and comforts, but he remained huddled on the hard concrete floor. Raven approached him quietly. He pulled his knees in closer to his body at her approach.

"You can't fix me, can you?" He whispered, hoarsely. Raven tried to get a look at his face, but his long coat's hood was covering it. "You're all lying to me, aren't you? You just want to spare my feelings." He shivered. "I'm going to fully transform. I'll be a monster, and you'll all feel nothing when you put me out of my misery."

Raven's empathy was darker than it had been in a while. His depression and fear was seeping into her own mind. She realized, only by shedding a single tear of her own, that he was crying. She'd been lacking in meditation lately, and he was getting to her more easily than she was used to. Her walls were lowered, and it was starting to bother her.

"We are not lying to you. Believe me when I say that I am not the one to sugar coat anything for someone's emotions. I assure you, there's nothing that I'm not doing in my power to help you." She rested a hand on the chain link fence.

He finally raised his head and she pulled her hand away. He was hideous. It wasn't his fault, but another horn was already growing out of his head, and his face was nearly covered in red, angry scales. The right side of his face that was fully covered before was now elongated with a high cheekbone, warping his face into a disproportionate picture. His nose was sharp on one side and normal on the other.

"Are you in pain?" She asked, though she already sensed that the answer was ' _yes'_.

He didn't respond, only pulling the hood down further over his face.

"You know I'm going to have to examine you, right?" She sighed when he remained silent. "Fine." She phased through the chain link fence and approached him cautiously. With a great amount of care she pulled his hood away from his face. "Any… other new developments?" She channeled her inner Beast Boy. "How's that tail coming along?" Her forced smile was pathetic, and it didn't fool him.

"It sucks." he bit out. "I… think I'm growing wings."

She raised a brow. He pulled off his coat to reveal that he wasn't wearing a shirt anymore underneath. This was clearly because a sharp, razor tipped bone was protruding from his back at an angle. Like the rest of him, it was only on the right side, but rough calloused skin on the other side of his back suggested the other one wasn't far behind. For the first time, Raven was worried about him. Actually worried. Her progress was too slow; her information was too limited.

 _He might just die after all_.

She wondered who would be the one to kill him. Her team? Or the authorities of Jump City? Either way, his condition was nearly critical, and she feared that a grand part of him was already lost.

"You're right. These are… the beginnings of wings." She touched the sharp bone lightly with her fingers, and he flinched. "How is your mental state?" She suspected that his depression was only the beginning of his mental downward spiral. Soon he would be menacing, vicious and unable to cope with his new form. He'd lash out and destroy them all if he got the chance. Raven hoped that Cyborg built that cage soon.

"I'm dying." He spit at her. "Maybe I'm not physically dying, but my thoughts get foggier and foggier." Something deep in his throat vibrated the air around them. He was hissing. "I want to eat you, you know."

Raven stepped back because he was getting up. "Stay away."

"I knew it. You're afraid of me." He stepped toward her and reached out. "You don't want to help me. You want me dead."

"I don't." She tried to look brave and let him touch her, but he was reaching out with his clawed hand, and it hurt more than she thought. "Ah," she whimpered a little.

He stopped, removing the claw from her shoulder. It made a wet sound and blood started to flow down her chest. "I will eat you. It will happen, I can feel it."

"Not if I can figure out what's happened to you." She touched the normal side of his face and transferred her sincere emotions to him. "I will."

He felt her words, felt her honesty, but he still pulled back into his corner.

She phased again through the fence and headed upstairs to heal.

It was her original intention to avoid being seen by her team, mostly by Robin, so that they wouldn't blame Kane for harming her. While she herself felt that he may be a lost cause, she didn't want Robin locking him away before she'd done her best. Unfortunately, she was busted by the one other person that was just as bad as Robin.

"Raven?" Cyborg's eyes were wide. He gently grabbed her unhurt arm. "You're bleeding."

On the floor, a puddle was forming from her hesitation in the hall. Her left arm was dripping from the gash in her shoulder. "I am."

He gave her a dark glare. "Come on, stupid." He lifted her gently and carried her down the hall to the elevator.

"I'm fine, Cyborg."

"No you ain't." He kept holding her the whole ride up to the medical ward. "You're getting blood all over my metal."

"So put me down."  
"Nah." He was frowning still. Raven sighed.

"I can heal myself."

This time he frowned at _her_ , so she shut up.

The ward was empty, and Raven sighed in relief. That is until- "Robin, get to medical, right now."

"No." Raven pulled away from him and he nearly dropped her on the floor. "Don't, please. He didn't mean it."

But Robin was there in record time and he wasn't happy. "What happened?"

Her fearless leader didn't want to listen to reason, though. He forced her to sit on the bed. "He just touched me, it's not his fault his claws are sharper than razors."

"You didn't restrain him before your inspection!?" He snapped. "Raven, how could _you_ of all people be so careless!"

"He's growing wings. I can't strap him to a chair anymore."

Robin crossed his arms. "Are. You. Alright?"

"I'm fine."

He turned on his heel. "Cyborg, come on."

"What are you doing?" She called after them.

They didn't answer her question but Robin called back, "Raven, stay put and heal. _That's an order_."

She wanted to protest, but the pain was finally setting in because her muscle was growing back together. She slipped into a quiet meditation while the rest of her took charge, slowly filling in the five inch deep wound that surely would have severed her arm from the rest of her if Kane had pulled. Her mind went dark.

…

While Raven's routine may have been drastically altered by research and spell-twisting, Beast Boy retained his normalcy throughout the three days now that Kane had been their half-willing roommate. Raven woke up yesterday afternoon in the Medical ward after her body had shut off her mind and repaired the damage that the monster in their basement had wrought. Beast Boy had been bristling all that day, but was not allowed to enter the basement and question the perpetrator. After discovering Raven, Cyborg and Robin reported that they had went down there to check on the half-man, and found him to be fearful and silent on the matter. That night, Cyborg rolled up his proverbial sleeves and finished the physical construction of his cell/cage design for their guest. It was strong and it held Kane, but it was not yet hooked up to the Tower's mainframe or Cyborg's systems, and was therefore vulnerable. You could easily open it manually from the outside, a fact that made Kane's position incredibly delicate. Especially after what was discovered next.

Beast Boy's routine included a lot of exercise for the animal inside him. He was running around the island, dodging rocks and sea surf as a cheetah, going as fast as he could without flat land. Suddenly though, the surf beneath him crashed against the rocks, revealing what looked to Beast Boy like a body. He morphed immediately back into his human form and gasped.

"Hey!" He called down; it was about a six foot drop. He was about to make a long jump when Aqualad's head broke the surface and grabbed the arm of the body in the water. Aqualad began dragging it to shore, and Beast Boy was sure to be there and meet them. "What the heck is going on, Aqualad?!"

The pair of them hauled the body in, and Beast Boy was shocked and grossed out to find that the body was in fact half-fish. The man, clearly alive and about their age, had gills on his neck, webs between his fingers and one leg was nearly full fin. The other leg was a twisted green-blue color, but retained its human shape. He had no hair on his body, replaced instead by small shiny scales. The man's ears were gone. "Beast Boy, we have a problem."

The whole team, including Aqualad, convened in the living room to discuss the creature that was currently recuperating in their biggest bathtub.

"You need to explain, now." Robin declared. Aqualad nodded and began his tale.

"He showed up on our shore, screaming, gasping for air or water. He was crying and dying before I pulled him back under the waves. His name is Harry-"

"Dude he is _not_ hairy at all." Beast Boy interjected.

" _His name is Harry_ ," Aqualad continued loudly. "And he needed our help. Apparently he was surfing when he suddenly passed out. He didn't drown, but instead woke up underwater. Mutated, like your Dragon." Everyone was silent. "He had this."

Aqualad handed Robin a huge, cracked piece of shell. Burned into the pink surface were the words **Before the Full Moon**. Raven's eyes widened. "Oh no."

Starfire looked at her. "What? What is wrong?"

Robin frowned. "Clearly there's a message here, but…" He looked to Raven. "What does that mean? 'The Titans will fall before the full moon'?"

She shook her head. "Not just the full moon. The Autumnal Equinox."

Starfire gasped. "That day you've been preparing for? The powerful time for a sorceress?"

"Yes."

Beast Boy remained confused. "Dudes, slow down, I don't get it… What does that mean?"

"It means," Robin frowned. "That there's someone out there who is planning something on a powerful day for magic. If that's true, we might actually have a clue on who is doing this to us. A sorceress." He looked at them all. "A witch."

Raven shook her head. "You're right, but that doesn't explain why there's a second mutated person."

Aqualad regained attention. "We've had him since yesterday, after we came back from trying to see _your_ monster. We tried communicating through the Titan's interface but nothing went through, and then we lost him for a few hours. He jumped out of a netted pool we cornered him in and made a break for it. He wasn't all there in the head, you know?"

Raven knew.

"I asked the sea creatures about him, and chased him all the way here. He seemed Hell-bent on getting to you guys."

"To get help?" Starfire asked. "Or to harm us?" She shivered.

Aqualad shrugged. "I'd finally knocked him out cold when he approached your island. I haven't even contacted Titan's East about where I am yet." He looked at his communicator. "I should let them know what's going on."

He turned to take his call in the kitchen, and the rest of the team gathered in a huddle.

"Someone's turning people into mutants, leaving them for us to find." Robin began. "Their message is a warning, and I have a feeling that those mutants are what they're going to use to take us down."

"But we have them in custody, surely we are safe now?" Starfire suggested.

Beast boy shivered. "But, dude, what if there are more?"

Suddenly, the red light began to flash and the alert sound started.

"Titans! Trouble!"

Aqualad was instructed to stay put and keep an eye on the mer-man in their tub. The rest of the team found themselves in the woods outside of the city. A campground had been brutally attacked by a giant wolf. The only problem was, that this wolf, still had human eyes.

"Titans, GO!"

Beast Boy immediately became a tiger. While the wolf was huge, the tiger is the biggest jungle cat, and he had a slight height advantage. The two were a blur of claws and teeth, a horrible screeching came from Beast Boy, while the wolf's snapping and salivating made for some hideous snarling.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven opened a dark magic crevice beneath the wolf, intending to swallow it whole before it did any damage. Instead it lashed out its teeth, snapping down hard on Beast Boy's tiger to pull itself out, and therefore forcing Raven to close the dark void. The wolf's mandibles sunk deep into Beast Boy's striped, right flank, and then there was blood. "No!" She felt her heart stop. _What did I do!?_

Cyborg let out a menacing war cry and crashed into the wolf from the side. The wolf wasn't prepared for that much fury coming at him and he went flying into a huge tree. Starfire followed close behind it, pummeling the beast with starbolts in a fast barrage of fire. The thing had hit the ground hard, but it wasn't down. Fur still flaming, a horrible burning smell in the air, it turned and howled at Starfire, jumping higher in the air than should have been possible, snapping bloody jaws at her ankles. She gasped and raised her height, just out of the creature's reach. Mid-air, Robin came in, also from the side, and smashed into the beast's head with his foot. Again, the wolf flew into the woods, only stopping when it made contact with another large oak tree. A sickening crack followed the impact this time, so when it fell to the ground, it started to run in the opposite direction.

"Oh no you don't!" Cyborg yelled after it, pursuing on foot. Starfire was already after it, too, keeping an aerial view on it from above.

"Raven! Help Beast Boy!" Robin followed the other two in hot pursuit, while Raven finally got a good look at the broken tiger.

He whined, his eyes rolling frightfully. "Beast Boy, change back!" She cried, landing on the ground next to him.  
"Change back! CHANGE!"

His eyes were dilated, nostrils flaring, but slowly his form returned to the long, lean green man she knew. She breathed out in relief, but, unfortunately, Beast Boy's right leg and hip bone were nearly severed from each other. Destroyed.

He'd never walk again.

Raven cried out frantically, her hands hovering over the wound, and she chanted (no, _screamed_ ) her words, again and again. Soon, they felt like they lost all meaning. Her sobs became her chant, her heart became her fuel. It felt like black fire was pouring out of her into her best friend, lying broken before her. "A-Az-zarath, M-mm-Metrion…" Raven's heart felt like it was breaking. _What did I do, what did I do, what did I do?_

After what felt like forever, he moved.

"R-Raven?" Beast Boy's eyes cracked a little. "It hurts."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry…" Her voice was a cracked whisper, her eyes dripping with tears. She kept saying her words, _Please, PLEASE_. "Azarath-"

Beast Boy's hand covered one of hers, stopping the chant. "No, YOU are hurting me, silly."

Raven's crying slowed down a little. Through her blurry tears she saw that his hip and leg were sewn back together, the scar tissue was fresh but fading, and her other hand was clutching his leg tightly. Her nails were digging into his skin.

She detached herself slowly and turned away from him, hiding her tears. She raised her hood to shield herself but he stopped her. "No, Rae, don't."

"Why not?" Her voice was hoarse and regained it's toneless air. She felt him pull on her wrist, making her turn toward his serious eyes.

"Thank you." He breathed.

Raven averted her gaze and merely nodded. "Can you stand?"

"Oh, I… don't know…" With Raven's help, Beast Boy made it to his feet, but he yelped when he put pressure on his right leg. Raven winced at the sound. "Hey," he comforted her. "It's fine, a lot better than…what it was."

She just nodded again.

"We should catch up to the others."  
"No," She looped an arm around him. "I'm taking you home, you need rest."

He was about to protest, but a tear that had not yet fallen down her cheek was resting on her face, so he gently wiped it away for her. "Okay."

They waited in the medical wing together for the rest of the team to come back. Raven was still recovering a little from the panic attack that she'd had earlier, and for some reason couldn't leave Beast Boy's side. Her foot tapped nervously on the floor while she watched him read comics. He was laid out in a hospital bed, per her instructions, and was entertaining himself with a comic since Raven refused to talk. Now and then he'd glance at her from behind the page and smile.

 _She's so worried_. "I'm fine, Raven. Just a little sore." He set the comic down on his lap. "It wasn't your fault."

She turned to him finally. "What?"

"You kept saying 'sorry'. Why? It wasn't your fault that my butt got bit by that rabid wolf."

She shook her head. "I forced it into snapping at you when I tried to send it to another plane of existence."

"No," he corrected sternly. "That's just what happened."

She neglected to answer so the two sat in an uncomfortable silence this time. Finally, the door opened to the medical ward and Starfire's head popped in. "We have returned, and the great beast has been put into the glass prison." She motioned for Raven to follow her. "Robin will come, Beast Boy, to make sure you are undamaged."

"Dude, I'm _fine_!" He called after them, hoping Raven would hear.

Raven followed her friend down to the basement. Apparently the Titan's had been in the basement for longer than she thought, because Cyborg and Robin were already halfway through mapping out the location of the next glass-faced prison. Kane was returned to his makeshift cell from earlier. The wolf was pacing menacingly in the glass prison, snarling and snapping at the Titans.

"We just built this damn thing," Cyborg growled, tape measure in hand. "Now we gotta do it again. Might as well convert the whole basement into Alcatraz at this rate…" He mumbled along as he went, Robin close behind him.

"Robin," Starfire called gently. "Beast Boy is upstairs."

Their leader nodded and gave Raven a 'thank you' smile before disappearing. "What do you need?" Raven asked. There was no need to, though. It was clear that Kane's state of mind was dwindling with the arrival of a new mutated person. Raven didn't think he was going to be jazzed about the guy in their bathtub. "I'll talk to him."

"From _outside_ the fence this time, Raven." Cyborg commented loudly. "Please."

She rolled her eyes and approached the frantic man who had his claws on the fence, staring at the wolf before him. "That's gonna be me." He hissed out. His teeth were getting bigger and sharper, his voice was changing, too.

"Yes." Raven answered curtly. "If I don't find a cure, which I will."

His black eyes turned to her, in the center they were turning amber-like, with dark slits. "When?" A low rumbling began deep in his throat like last time. "You're taking forever." One of his claws snapped a link in the chain, and he pulled his hand back in shock.

Raven's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. _This fence is an illusion. We don't have him restrained at all_. "I have a lead."

"YOU'RE LYING!"

Both Cyborg and Starfire reacted, whipping their heads around. "Hey!" Cyborg stomped over. "Do I gotta tell you again to cool it? Because if I have to say it one more time, I'll knock out a few of those overgrown fangs of yours!"

"Stop." Raven squared off with him. "It's not his fault." She turned to the tortured man behind the fence. "I'll bring my research down here to you. You'll see that I _am_ trying to help you, and that I _do_ have a lead."

She disappeared into the walls and returned only about six minutes later with heavy tomes, a huge notebook and her fancy pen. For the rest of the night, Raven set up shop in the tower basement, sitting against the fence next to Kane who was far calmer with another person around for company. Cyborg and Star had left long ago, but Raven was still there, reading notes and passages to their poor prisoner.

"See here? It speaks about the mutation of non-earth creatures and humans. The Dragon was never of this world, and therefore is a specific mutation selected just for you." She pointed to the book she was holding.

"So?" He bit back. His temper was shorter than it had been an hour ago.

Fearful of continuing and pissing him off further, Raven simply went back to reading. There was an awkward silence before Raven could smell something foul behind her. She turned to find his face inches from her own, kept back only by the fence between them, and she knew that the fence was like paper for his claws. She jumped back while he salivated, eyes darker than ever before. _Hungry_.

"Kane!" She scolded in her Raven-way. "Stop, NOW."

It looked like he tried to answer but his words were mangled into a lizard hiss. She flicked him in the forehead and the force of her magic snapped his head back.

"Ow!" He yelled, rubbing the sore spot.

She frowned deeply. "Oh, you have so many scales by now, that didn't hurt at all." Raven was so drained of energy that channeling Beast Boy's sense of humor a few floors up was the only way to keep her in good spirits. "Shut up and sit down. If you drool all over me again like that I'll rip off your horn and keep it for my spells."

He sat cross legged on the floor before her, sulking. "Sorry." It was sarcastic and rude, but she accepted it.

After another few moments of silence she turned to him again. "I could help ease your mind, if you'd permit me."

"How?"

She rolled her eyes. _I am way too tired to explain_. "Just let me into your mind, alright?"

His permission wasn't difficult to obtain because his eyes glazed over again, the amber turning dark gold, the eyes dilating into hunger once more. Instead of waiting for his human side to resurface again, she just jumped right in. One quick meditative chant later and she was standing in a vortex of pain, suffering and primal instinct. It was so twisted and ripped apart, she didn't think she could mend it, but then…

 _What is that_? She thought to herself.

A small silver strand wove its way in and out of the whole spectrum of Kane's mind. It was equally twisted and evil, but it had a purpose. Unlike his confused thoughts, it was calculated and formed a unidentifiable pattern inside him, like it was weaving its own spell. In the center of it all was a white tree made from the silver strands coming together. Even more in the center of that, an insignia of the Dragon was woven amongst the branches. Raven suspected she would find a wolf in the mind of the wolf, and a fish in the man Aqualad had brought them.

"I'm going to _eat you_ ," came a hiss from somewhere in his mind. It echoed all around her. Raven's heart stopped. " _I will find you, I will EAT YOU!"_

She snapped back to reality when she felt a sharp bite on her shoulder. Kane had clawed through the fence and had sunk his teeth into her before she could ease his mind for him. "AH!" She screamed, throwing a fist back and clocking him hard in the nose. Like her flick to the forehead, his head snapped back, this time throwing his whole body into the wall and snapping one of the bones protruding from his back. They both howled in pain, because when he flew backwards, his teeth took some of her shoulder with it.

"Raven!" Robin's voice was heard at the top of the stairs to the basement. He and Cyborg were probably back to work on the basement, which meant it was morning again. The wolf howled loud and long from the smell of blood, and suddenly everything was loud and frantic while Cyborg, Robin and the wolf all yelled at once.

"GET BACK!" Cyborg aimed his blaster at Kane who was scraping up the floor in fury and agony.

"Raven! Come on, let's go," He helped pull her to her feet. "SHUT UP, you overgrown chihuahua!"

Screaming, hissing, howling and loud curse words were too much for Raven, and once again she passed out from a pain in her shoulder.

…

"Aw, cool. Roomies." Beast Boy gave Raven his signature grin when she finally woke up from her trance. He laughed when she rolled her eyes. "I'm feeling better," He added. "Thanks to you." She turned her head away from him and smiled.

"I'm glad."

Beast Boy had been worried about her all night. Now that he was keeping a tally on her food intake, he knew that she hadn't eaten since before she got hurt the first time by Kane. That had been, what? A whole day ago?

"Hey, Raven?" Beast Boy held out a huge leftover dinner roll. "Want the last one?" Cutting through the silence between them was the rumbling of her stomach.

"Fine." She gingerly took it from him and nibbled at it, but when she felt like her stomach was going to eat itself, she wolfed it down in about seven bites.

He grinned again. "Cool."

She rolled her eyes again at his comment but felt a lot better. They spent the quiet morning in the Medical ward while Robin and Starfire scanned the city looking for more mutated people. Cyborg was in the basement, finishing up the second prison. He'd worked all night on it, but he still had more to go, and that was frustrating him. While taking a lunch break, he brought them all some french fries and waffles.

"French fries _and_ waffles?" Raven picked away at a huge, fluffy waffle.

"I couldn't decide." Cyborg shrugged.

The two boys joked and laughed together while Raven observed them quietly from her bed. Here and there she'd throw in a sarcastic comment that seemed to make them laugh even harder, when all she cared about was just being part of it. After an hour or two of talking, Robin and Starfire reappeared from their search in the city.

"Hey, Team." Robin began. "There's been no sign of anything suspicious, but don't worry, we'll keep an eye out. In the meantime, Raven, I think you need to stop visiting Kane so much. It's becoming hazardous to your health."

Beast Boy looked at her. "You've been _visiting_ him? After what he did to you?" _I thought she was just examining him_. He thought.

Raven was confused by his tone. "His emotions are overpowering for my empathy. I needed to calm him down, and company seemed to be the only way."

He frowned. "He has a funny way of saying thank you, Raven." He huffed and sat back on the bed. Raven was even more confused.

While Raven's empathy was to pick up on emotion and to use them to fuel her own power, she was still bewildered when it came to several emotions flowing at once. Adding them up was the most confusing part. Anger, pain, frustration and irritation all added up to someone on her team being wounded or hurt in a battle. Happiness, nervousness and anxiousness usually meant that Robin and Starfire were spending time together. Beast Boy was currently a mix of anger, frustration, nervousness and bitterness. So, what did that add up to?

"Raven?" Starfire's voice broke into her thoughts. She looked at the little alien who seemed to realize that she should repeat her question. "I was wondering what your thoughts were on the curse placed on our um-'guests'.."

Raven shook her head. "I've been detained lately." She sighed, rubbing her scalp.

Everyone looked at her expectantly anyway.

Raven sat up and crossed her legs. "I have been inside the mind of Kane. Within him is a woven network of curse that caused the mutation in the first place. In the center is a tree, and in the center of that is a Dragon shape. The only place a curse like that could have come from is incredibly old magic from Earth. Primitive or medieval. The person who cast it shouldn't be alive today."

"How do you know it's from Earth?" Robin asked.

"Tree magic is mostly rooted in Earth's history and isn't found in other places."

"And you can't search their memories to see who cursed them?"

She shook her head. "They all passed out, remember? Those memories are dark and filled with holes."

The team sat in silence a moment, thinking. "So, an ancient old person from Earth is mutating people and sending them after us so that they can kill us before the full moon?" Cyborg asked.

"More like the full moon is what will make their mutation permanent." Raven supplied.

Robin crossed his arms. "What else do you have for us?"

Raven explained that not only was the curse an unfortunate fate for the poor souls in their basement, but a time-clock. Clearly the mutation had been taking over Kane's body slowly, creeping closer and closer to meet the full moon. She suspected that when time ran out they'd be a permanent threat, because there would be no way of changing them back.

"So, what you're saying is you DO know the curse." Robin somewhat accused.

Raven sighed and shook her head. "Not technically. I understand the nature and origin of the curse. When I go through my books again there's a chance I'll find the right one, but there's also a chance that it's some sort of customized spell for a singular purpose. If that's the case there may not be a counter-curse. A crafted spell on record usually has an emergency fail-safe, or counter-spell."

Beasty Boy peeked his head around Cyborg again. "So what you're saying is, we're screwed."

"There's a 50/50 chance."

"But still a chance." Robin corrected. "I don't know about you, team, but there's something familiar about the description of our villain. Right, Cyborg?"

Cyborg looked at him for a moment, uncomprehending. Then he said, "No way! That old hag got lost in translation thousands of years ago."

"But she reappeared with the Brotherhood of Evil, so we know she's using magic to stay alive."

"Or she'll never die purely out of hag-spite." Cyborg grumbled.

Everyone else was confused.

"Dudes, what are you talking about?" Beast Boy asked. "I'm trying real hard to keep up, but you're being weird about this, just tell us!"

Cyborg crossed his arms. "Robin thinks that Witch is out for revenge."

Starfire scrunched her eyebrows. "Who?"

"When I was sent back in time to help that barbarian village, Witch was the one behind all the attacks." He explained. "If she's behind this than she's in for a rude awakening."

"Easy. We're not one hundred percent sure yet." Robin brought a hand to his chin and thought. "Maybe we can get a location. If we warn all the Titans about Witch specifically, I'm sure someone is bound to run into her."

"It's worth a shot." Cyborg agreed.

…

Again their living room was graced with the presence of the whole Titan's East team.

"Don't you guys have work to do or something?" Beast Boy joked.

Speedy smiled. "We haven't had a call in a whole week. You guys need to step up your crime fighting game."

Robin narrowed his eyes at Speedy and grinned wickedly. "That a challenge?"

"Uh, boys?" Bumblebee interrupted. "Don't we have an issue on our hands?"

Aqualad stood beside her in seriousness. "Raven's report is pretty startling. We should focus and get prepared for an attack on the Full Moon."

"All Titans should be prepared." Bumblebee agreed. "Have you sent out an alarm?"

Robin regained his composure. "We sent out a warrant on Witch, but…"

"We didn't want to start a panic, not yet." Cyborg finished.

Bumblebee frowned deeply. "That's not okay. They need to know what's going on, they could all be in danger."

There was a long, loud discussion about this before Robin consented to the widespread announcement that Witch was at large, and that there may be a threat regarding any and all Titans. During this discussion, Raven found herself squeezed between Beast Boy (who was strangely quiet) and Aqualad who was vehemently voicing his opinion on the matter at hand. When there was finally a resolve and Raven could hear herself think again, neither of the boys made any attempt to go and sit or stand somewhere else.

"-think there's another one out there?"

"We have three already, who's to say that there isn't a whole army out there?"

"Wait a minute!" Beast Boy finally spoke.

Everyone stopped and turned his way.

"Where's the note on that huge wolf? Everyone else got a note!"

Almost every single Titan did a facepalm. "Damn." Bumblebee sighed. "He's right."

"But that creature was so broken and fierce, I am sure he cannot tell us where it was or what it said…" Starfire pointed out, sadly.

Everyone was wracking their brains for a solution but came up empty.

"I could attempt to enter his mind, his memories?" Raven piped in, quietly.

Aqualad turned to her in disbelief. "Wait, you _do_ that sort of thing?" Raven figured that this would be the last of his minor attraction toward her, now that he knew about her 'freakiness', but he merely exclaimed, "That's amazing, Raven!"

She almost felt herself blush a little when Beast Boy shot back at Aqualad with "Yeah, you didn't know about that? Of course she can."

Again, Raven was unable to do the math on the intricate amount of emotion flooding over her from every person in the room, so instead she stood and politely excused herself, promising Robin she'd report back later.

"And, Raven?" Robin called after her. "Be _insanely_ careful this time, please?"

"Third time's the charm." She monotonously chided back.

…

When Raven left the room, Beast Boy bristled. "You're just letting her go into the mind of another monster like that? Dude, first she's a shishkabob on that guy's claw, then she was lunch, and now she's taking on the fully-mutated-can't even think straight or bathe himself-bit my leg off-wolf thing?" Beast Boy stood up. "Do we ever consider the fact that Raven does things without thinking about her own well-being?"

Everyone watched his tirade with silent shock and confusion. Only Robin seemed to nod his head in understanding, like a good leader should. "I understand you're worried about her, but she's Raven. She's smart, strong, capable. She knows what she can handle."

Beast Boy clenched his fists. "She can't even finish a meal. She has no _idea_ what she's doing." He flew out the open window as a gull and disappeared over the waves of the Pacific Ocean.

Over the course of the day a lot was done in and outside of Titan's Tower. When Titan's East finally left, Beast Boy had still not returned, but Raven had an ominous message to report. What seemed to be another half of the clue had resurfaced in the dark, violent mind of the wolf whose name seemed to be 'Zachary'. Just another poor soul lost to circumstance, his mind almost completely inhuman. But within the dark, bloody recesses of Zachary's mind was a message; memories of the note he found when he awoke somewhere outside of the state park. **Soon He Will Come**.

Drained from three days of trance-healing, the stress of Beast Boy's leg being torn off, and two invasions into the minds of something dark and twisted, all the while eating only one large dinner roll and some waffle, Raven finished her report and collapsed in front of them all, worn out completely. This time, though, Raven was tucked gently into her own bed instead of a hospital gurney. While the bed was different, her visitors were not, including Beast Boy who sat on the floor and leaned against her bed for about an hour, thinking.

His flight around the city had done him good; reevaluating his emotions. He was maturing now, and was not the same teenager he used to be. They were all growing up, but he felt that he was growing the most. Probably because he had a longer way to go. Nearing the age of nineteen, (almost three years after Tara) his heart had healed, and he was learning more about himself in the relationships that he did have. His friends, his 'family' (the Doom Patrol) were all huge parts of him and were treated like family and friends. Then there was a third category that no one knew how to describe to you when you're young. That romantic category, where feelings are strong in their own special way. Tara had always belonged to that category. Since the moment they first met he boxed her away in his heart where he put her on a pedestal, and reused to see what she was or the decisions that she made. Not until his heart was broken, and his eyes had been shown the truth.

But she'd redeemed herself in the end, and so did his feelings. A resolve, a closure had taken root in him, and he felt in the years after seeing her again that he could move on. He didn't expect anyone else to fall into that category for a long time.

And so far, there wasn't anyone. But the problem was that the people in his life were starting to blend all those categories together. Another thing they don't tell you when you're young is that people can become your friends, friends can become your family, and some of your family members will become your best friends. For Beast Boy, everyone was breaking down the organized boxes in his heart, intermingling between family and friend, which (don't get him wrong) he wouldn't have any other way! But Raven was, ever since he'd started to observe her closely, slowly floating in no-man's land, and he couldn't understand why. Suddenly he was lashing out at Robin over her safety, as if his leader didn't know what he was doing.

Robin always knew what he was doing.

And so it was on that flight over the city where Beast Boy felt embarrassed about the whole thing and avoided coming home. He didn't want anyone asking anything, making fun of his outburst or scolding him for questioning Robin's judgement, and therefore waited until he was sure that Bee and the others had left. When he finally returned to the main living room in the tower, Cyborg was the only one around. He reported cooly that Starfire and Robin went to bed and that Raven had collapsed and was taken to her room to rest. Worried, he became a fly and entered her room silently before curling up at the foot of her bed.

And now, here he was.

When Raven awoke the next morning, she found a green dog curled up at the foot of her bed, nuzzling the carpet and drooling. She almost cursed him to fall about thirty floors, but instead let him sleep. She figured it would be punishment enough for him to wake, find her gone, and live with the humiliation of being caught green-handed. When she drank her herbal tea for breakfast, Raven almost felt disappointed that there weren't any green eyes following her every sip. She didn't know why Beast Boy had an obsession with watching her drink her breakfast, but its presence became so second-nature that his absence was sorely missed. When a morning routine like hers is disturbed, there's usually not a good reaction on her part. So, when he finally appeared downstairs all sheepish and embarrassed, she was inclined to ignore him and continue his punishment for sneaking into her room. Grown above petty anger fits over one of her friend's appearing here and there in her room, she settled for quiet discontent.

"Alright, Team." Robin was such an early bird. "We need to figure out who "He" is."

Beast Boy yawned. "Who, now?"

" **Soon He Will Come**." Robin repeated. "That was the warning on the wolf's note."

"Zachary." Starfire corrected.

Robin nodded. "Right. Clearly, Witch is turning humans into monsters for someone else."

"Just like the last time." Cyborg chimed in. "She didn't like being used for someone else's schemes, so she threw in a lot of tricks to mess up the plans of Krall, that guy I had to fight in the stone age."

"Which means that she could be trying to help us. If we can get Witch away from her new master, she could just change those humans back."

Raven set down her tea. "And if we can't?"

Robin looked at her pointedly. "Hopefully you can stay healthy long enough to find us a miracle."

Neither of them looked optimistic.

"So how do we find her or ' _him'_ or 'they' or 'it' at all?!" Beast Boy threw in. "Do we even have a lead?"

Robin nodded. "Just this morning I got a location from a Titan up north. You all remember Argent?"

Everyone nodded.

"She left New Zealand to come visit for a while, and while she was at a sorceress gathering in Canada, she said she saw an ancient old woman who fit the description I sent out. Remember, we only have ten days until the full moon. We'll start there."

…

The Titan's trip to Canada proved to be both enlightening, and useless. After following a lead that led to another lead that led to a dead end, everyone decided that wasting four of their ten days in Canada was enough, and raced back home so Raven could get started on a cure. She'd brought her tomes, notes and favorite pen with her on the trip, but so far had only a vague idea on a counter-curse. With the help of what seemed to be an equally old sorceress high in the Canadian mountains, Raven fully understood the nature, means, cast and effect of Witch's curse. However, she wondered if she'd be powerful enough to properly craft and execute her own spell.

It was the mounting stress of this conundrum that she accidentally got into a fight with Kane in the basement. After a full day of human clarity, his brain was on the glitch again, both of their tempers were red-hot and it was the last straw for Raven.

"Let me try another one!" She snapped. "You're making this impossible!"

He hissed his lizard-like hiss. His tongue was now a dark shade of red and starting to fork at the end. "STOP WASTING MY TIME!"

Cyborg had finally finished both prisons, hooked up the scanners and data, and was beginning construction on a glass prison that could handle gallons of water. So far, though, Harry the fish-person was such a minimal threat that no one really cared if he stayed locked in the upstairs bathroom for a while.

"I'm NOT wasting your time." Raven attempted a lower voice. Behind the glass, Kane was pacing. His tail had grown very long, and now all he could wear was one of Raven's old robes and a pair of Cyborg's baggy shorts. His right wing-bone was broken though, and since the mutation was growing rapidly, it wouldn't heal in time to grow properly. So now, not only was he still becoming a monster, his first wing would always be warped and misshapened. He'd never fly.

 _Not than anyone want's him to fly out of here and eat someone_. Raven thought to herself.

"You ARE wasting my time." He whispered, matching her tone. He didn't want Cyborg and Robin coming down to yell at him again for harming their precious sorceress. "Nothing you've tried has WORKED."

"I still have three more to go!" She showed him her notes. "Just hold still, please. You're finally lucid again and we only have two more days…"

"FINE." He bit out unkindly. "Just do your stupid magic. It's not like _magic_ was what turned me _into_ this hideous thing."

Raven chanted her fifth spell of the day at this ungrateful monster whose tail made a _swishing_ sound when he paced his cage. There were claw marks all over the prison and he and the wolf were clearly having a turf war. When she finished her spell, she realized that the only thing she'd reversed was his human lucidity. He was completely gone again. The dragon screamed and hissed and snapped at her, his nose far more elongated now and his fangs grown at least three inches long.

She fell to the ground with a sob in frustration, throwing her notes away from her. "AGH!" She let both of their emotions screech through her and the lights went out.

In the dark, things weren't so bad. She couldn't see the thing he was becoming, nor the thing that was already lost. Her overflowing rage and sympathy for the people before her was taking a major toll on her. She'd never had to do this before. Heal a little here and there, move things with her mind, chant her words, _meditate_. No one had ever asked her to do this before, to put these lives in her hands and beat the clock before they were gone forever. She'd never crafted a spell like this. She'd never had to reverse such an effect.

 _Except that one…_

The time she'd banished Malchior back to his book was the first time she'd learned a curse of that magnitude. It wasn't even a counter-curse! It was the original design by the great wizard Rorek, and she was completely incapable of creating that kind of magic alone from scratch. These books she owned were useless on deep-rooted Earth Magic after an extent. Maybe eight of her tomes were Earth-written. Everything else was either of Azarath or from some otherworldly place.

She tugged on the collar of her cloak, trying not to be overwhelmed by her emotions. She was becoming desperate. The time was already running out on today, and they had gotten nowhere.


	3. Teen Titans Episode 1: Cursed (Part III)

It seemed to Beast Boy that this entire ordeal didn't really include him. He knew that Raven was the one taking the brunt of this load that had fallen into their laps, but he and Starfire had not really done anything to help. It was this thought that drove him out all that day that Raven was trying out spells on Kane. He was searching for anything. Any different smell, any weird sound, any weird instinctual vibe that told him a large animal or creature was on the loose somewhere in Jump City and beyond.

He wasn't really expecting it to work.

Apparently if you're really desperate to find something, it might just ram into you at thirty feet in the air. Both winged creatures, one green and one dark brown (almost black), plummeted to the ground, only just catching themselves before making impact. Beast Boy morphed immediately and stood up from the ground. He was staring upward at the largest bat he'd ever seen in his entire life.

"Hello?" It spoke.

"Wh-wha? Hello?" Beast Boy answered in shock. "Dude… you can talk?"

The bat giggled. "Mhm!" She ruffled her wings and remained hanging upside down from a large tree branch. Beast Boy realized they had landed in the city park. A mother and her child ran in fright from the large bat and the green Titan who had suddenly occupied their picnic spot.

"Sorry!" He called out after them.

The bat tilted her head at him. "Are you a Titan by any chance?"

He thought for a moment. "Why do you want to know?'

"Because the Titans are in danger, silly!" She giggled again. "I've been trying to locate one."

Beast Boy observed her closely. She was clearly the make and model of a large fruit bat, with dark-black eyes and fluffy ears. She had the face, body, wings and feet of a bat. She was A BAT. And yet, her voice came through clear as day, as if she'd never been (what he assumed was) mutated. "You're one of the mutants sent to kill us?"

"Absolutely!" She said happily. "Finally! Someone understands!"

"Whaaa?" Beast Boy was so confused. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be fighting her or thanking her for her kind contribution to their problem. "Dude. What's happening?"

"Please," She continued. "Take me to your tower. I want to help!"

After communicating to the Team and ordering them to crack a large window, Beast Boy led the girl-bat to their living room where she hung from the ceiling in delight.

"Okay, Beast Boy. What the heck is going on?" Robin demanded.

The bat giggled. "I'll tell him! Can I?" She didn't wait for a response. "I'm Ellie! I'm the second mutant!"

"Second?" Starfire asked.

The bat nodded. "Yup! First the poor boy-wolf, then me! I think after me there was a crab or a dolphin."

"A fish." Cyborg corrected.

"Oh! Cool."

Robin interrupted. "Stop. Start from the beginning."

Ellie explained that she was a psychic from a few cities over. Everyone else doubted that, but based on her ability to remain clear-headed over her mutation, Robin thought she might be right. She explained that a really old lady came to her, and told her that she was angry at her boss and needed a psychic reading. When Ellie turned her back to prepare one, she passed out and was left with a note and an intense hearing ability. A few days later she went blind, but that didn't mean she forgot what the note had said. It read: **By The Stroke of Four**.

"Four… four what?" Robin wondered.

"Duh, bro. 4AM. After the full moon is up." Beast Boy said.

"Or," Robin commented. "Four mutants."

Ellie gasped. "That's EXACTLY what I WAS THINKING!" She fluttered her wings at Robin. "Are you psychic, too?"

He rolled his eyes. "No. Look, can you tell us any more about the old woman's boss?"

Ellie bat-nodded. "Mhm! She said he was cold and cruel and pushed her around. Said he was hurting her, forcing her to work all hours of the night. Like some evil, twisted robot of a person." Her huge wings shrugged. "That's all I got, fella."

Robin frowned deeply. "Couldn't be…"

"We don't know it's Slade, Robin." Cyborg warned. "Don't get all excited just yet."

"Okay, let's think about this. _Soon he will come, before the full moon, The Titans will Fall, by the stroke of four_?" Robin said aloud.

"Or something like that." Beast Boy added.

Ellie nodded again. "Sounds almost right to me!" She let go of the ceiling and gracefully nose-dived before catching herself a foot above the ground and swooping back up again. "Listen, fellas it would be great if you let me haunt the halls here. They've got such high ceilings and it's soooo much warmer than the park!" She flitted around, even with an enormous size she was just as silent as a small bat.

Beast Boy shrugged and looked at their leader who hung his head and sighed deeply. " _Fine_." He conceded. "But only because she's still lucid. Besides, we need to keep an eye on all the mutants anyway, and if this is truly the last one out there, we should probably lock this place down."

"Lock ourselves IN with these things?" Beast Boy asked incredulously.

Suddenly, Ellie screeched in a high pitched whine. "OW!" She whimpered from the ceiling. "Whoever's in the basement is having a really LOUD conversation. What's hissing?"

"Raven!" Beast Boy shouted.

But she appeared through the floor in a dark haze of anger. She stormed to the fridge and threw it open. The door slammed against the counter, cracking the handle. She pulled out the nearest apple and a sharp knife. She threw both on the counter in anger and with her magic, the knife sliced the apple in half on its own.

"Uh, Raven?" Beast Boy asked.

"Not now."

"But-"

"SHHH!" She snapped. Ellie hid her face with her wings, peeking out with one soft eye in nervousness. Raven studied the halves of the apple for a long moment, consulting a book that Beast Boy just realized that she had been carrying with her. When it didn't seem like she found what she was looking for, she set the apple halves down gently. "Damn it."

"Raven." Robin was commanding in tone. "What are you doing?"

She shook her head back and forth. "Nothing, I'm sorry. The book suggested an old divination technique using the seeds of an apple. It's a 'fruit of wisdom'. But it didn't help. I knew it wouldn't."

"You're still stuck? Nothing worked?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"No," Beast Boy answered her gently. "Don't be. You're doing amazing work, Raven. It's okay."

She didn't answer. Instead she calmly took one half of the apple and left, nibbling it as she went.

Beast Boy watched her go and felt sad in his heart. His friend was being torn apart, he knew it. _She must be so down on herself right now._

On the contrary, Raven was more desperate than down. She entered her room and spit the seeds into her hand. She deposited them into a small flask where she kept dried ones for spells and crossed over to her destination. In a chest, in a dark corner of her room, was the book.

 _The_ book.

She unlocked it and gently lifted the white book from inside. It was dusty and smelled of age, even older than before after four years of being locked away. It was stale and torn and beautiful. She hated this book, but it wasn't just the Hellspawn of the dread dragon Malchior, but the tome of Rorek, the wise wizard of Nol. Within its pages was probably the key to releasing those poor souls in the basement, and she had vowed that she would never crack the cover unless absolutely necessary. This personal grimoire of Rorek was her last book, and her last chance.

And Malchior was gone anyway.

Seeing him again with the Brotherhood of Evil had been a harsh blow, but he was thrown into another dimension. Her closure had been gifted to her that day, but the scars remained. He made her feel so worthless that day. Unwanted. He'd pulled the rug out from under her, making her feel like such a fool. Making her feel so stupid for thinking that he loved her. Because he sure as Hell did _not_.

She disappeared into one of her favorite dusty rooms on one of the top floors and sat down to read the white book. The Grimoire of Rorek. The scar from her past.

…

It was Wednesday, the last day before the full moon rose on Thursday evening. The Titan's boys were all in the gym again, working out simultaneously. Every week they'd all sync up somehow and spend some time together during their exercise routines. Robin was lifting weights this time, Cyborg was testing his reflexes on a shooting simulator and Beast Boy was once again running as fast as he could as a cheetah on a treadmill. His cardio was what mattered to him most. Even on the verge of nineteen he was still lean like Robin, not a bodybuilder. He was taller now, too. He had at least five inches on Raven, two on Starfire, still shorter than Cyborg and exactly even with Robin. The speedometer was hitting sixty-eight when Cyborg hit him with "So what's with you and Raven lately?"

He nearly went flying off the treadmill from the abruptness of the question. Instead he morphed and jumped off before lowering the speed to a more human rate. "Dude, what?" He panted out.

"Your outburst over Raven?" He asked. Beast Boy internally smacked himself for flying off the handle last night.

"Oh yeah…" He replied. "Nothing, I don't know. She just seems off lately, you know?" He scratched his head and turned off the treadmill completely, choosing dumbbells instead.

Cyborg shrugged. "I mean she's got a lot on her plate. Not to mention she's been beaten around a lot from all those trips downstairs." He winced a little thinking about it.

"Not to mention the fact that the person beating her up is a dragon." Robin threw in, lowering the bench press weight back on it's stand and sitting up.

Beast Boy's ears flattened. "Oh. I never even thought of that."

"You mean like that guy who… you know?" Cyborg asked. "You're right, that's rough."

The three of them paused a moment, thinking about it.

"Not to mention your girlfriend has been bugging her about it, apparently." Robin finally said, breaking the silence.

Cyborg's tone was almost offended. "Say, what?" He put his sonic cannon away and crossed his arms. "What do you mean?"

Beast Boy frowned, too. "Yeah, what did she say?"

Robin shrugged. "Starfire told me that Bumblebee was trying to set up Aqualad and Raven, but before that she mentioned Raven's 'ex' being locked in the tower somewhere. Starfire said that Raven didn't really care or react, but she's good at masking emotion. Maybe tell Bee to lay off?"

"Hey, it's not like she meant anything bad by it." Cyborg shot back. "But, you're right, I'll tell her that Raven's not really the one to give advice like that, and that her 'ex' is a touchy subject."

Beast Boy's mind was focused on another fact though. "Does Aqualad… _like_ Raven?" He asked.

The two others gave him a look before Robin said, "It's possible. I mean, _she_ liked him once, right?" He looked at Cyborg who shrugged.

"I-unno, man."

Beast Boy frowned. "I never thought of that, either."

"Hey, B-" Cyborg almost asked, but Robin elbowed his metal side and shook his head. Instead, Beast Boy left the room in deep thought.

"I'm, uh, hungry. I'll see you guys later." He called behind him.

Cyborg frowned down at his leader who, though taller now, was still shorter than him. "What was that for?"

"Let him work out his own stuff for now." Robin answered before going back to his routine.

Beast Boy wandered the halls in thought, absolutely NOT hungry like he'd said he was. He roamed around, thinking, trying to sort out his own thoughts. What was happening to him? What was going on in his emotions? Raven would probably know. She knew emotions better than anyone, even if she didn't like them. He sometimes wondered what it was like to be her, and what it was like to feel everything everyone else was feeling around her. He wondered if she ever even felt her _own_ emotions sometimes. Would she even recognize them, if she did?

 _Would she even know if she ever…_ he thought. _Felt something for someone?_

His ears perked up when he heard something come from the door next to him. It was an old door, locked for a long time. An old tech-room that Cyborg used when he was designing this floor. Beast Boy remembered that it had a couch and a desk, but not much else left inside. And yet, he heard some noises coming from it. He bristled and morphed into his dog-form, sniffing the crack under the door. His nose snuffled, making a small noise through the crack, and because of this the noises behind the door stopped.

He morphed back. "Raven? You in there?" _It definitely smelled like her._ But there was no answer from behind the door. _She's avoiding me._ "Raven, I'm coming in." He slithered under the door as a snake and found her curled on the couch clutching a large, white book. "Oh, no… "

She shook her head and clutched it harder. "I'm _fine_."

"Really?"

She hesitated. "No."

"Didn't think so." He crossed over to her and sat down on the couch next to her. Against her better judgement, she leaned back against him and sighed, shakily.

"It's this book. I know he's out there somewhere, he's not still haunting my room… but he _is_ haunting my thoughts." She shook her head. He listened quietly. "I thought he would go away forever. I was wrong."

Garfield wanted to say so many things to her, but he kept quiet. _What do you say, anyway, when this kind of thing happens?_ Instead he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her closer, his chest against her back. He waited for a slap or a dark energy pulse around him, but instead all he felt were her hollow, quiet cries and one tear that fell on his sleeveless arm.

After what felt like an hour of the two of them sitting there in silence, Beast Boy couldn't take it anymore. "Raven," He sighed. "When Tara 'died' I was shattered. There were so many different feelings inside me: betrayal and sorrow, longing and relief. Pain and forgiveness. It took me a long time to take all of those feelings and mold them together into 'peace'. But when she came back…" Raven turned ever so slightly to observe him out of the corner of her eye. "Well, it felt like everything was happening again. Like she was also haunting me. I let it eat me alive for way too long after she reappeared that day, and now I'm telling you… _Don't_."

Raven closed her eyes and pulled her hood over her.

"I'm serious, Raven. _Don't_. I know he's out there, I know he's a threat, but until he comes bursting through the door or the mirror or the very night sky, we'll deal with it when it happens. Alright? Not before." He gently tugged on her hood and she let him pull it back off. "And we'll all be there for you, too. Okay?"

She turned her face completely this time to look at him. "Okay." She breathed, quietly. It felt like her heart was broken again, into small fragments of ice and stone. This book was both a blessing and a curse, but before she'd gone downstairs to tell Robin, she'd needed a moment alone. Now she realized that a moment alone may have killed her altogether. Beast Boy's appearance was monumentally beneficial to her health. He'd saved her from falling apart.

She turned away and leaned against him again, thinking. _He's so warm_. This moment was a turning point for Raven's opinion in her green friend. They'd always been friends, but now they were actually connecting. Actually close. She finally, truly felt the soul of the friend next to her, and like Starfire, she was finding his nearness more of a comfort than ever before.

After another ten minutes of soaking up Beast Boy's warmth (which Beast Boy gladly gave), she stood up from the couch and headed for the door. "Come'on. We have to talk to Robin."

"About what?"

…

She gingerly set the white grimoire down on the table and tapped the page with her fingertip. Everyone waited. "This is an incantation that, to summarize, will let the mutants keep their human minds, even while their bodies are still transforming into monsters. I can't save their human forms, but I can let them keep their sanity. If we can get Witch away from her master, she can fulfill her personal counter-curse and set them all free. Until then, we have a slight advantage."

Robin approved greatly of her plan. "Alright, get to work, quick. Cyborg, Star and I will get the rest of the plan going, while you and Beast Boy speak with the guys downstairs. The 'fish tank' is up, so Beast Boy, you'll need to talk to him, too."

"Dude, why do _I_ need to talk to them, again?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven smiled while she shut the book. _Growing up, still dense as ever_.

"Beast Boy, just because they have their minds back doesn't mean they don't have muzzles and fangs. They can't speak to us anymore. Kane can barely say anything at this point."

Raven nodded. "The full moon is tomorrow. The last thing to change on him is that broken wing, which won't ever heal. He's a fully-formed red and black mountain dragon."

"Luckily for us, he's still only the size of a horse. Not the size of Titan's Tower." Cyborg joked. Raven held her tongue.

"Alright, you all have your assignments, let's get started."

Raven dropped the book. "Robin, wait."

"What is it?"

She turned to them all. "It's Harry, I can't sense him… he's gone."

…

Somewhere in Jump City's state park and wildlife preserve was a large clearing. Usually it was a place where deer grazed, but tonight it was bathed halfway in moonlight.

Empty.

Quiet.

The birds had stopped chirping a long time ago, the crickets seemed to have left the scene. Literally nothing but the wind blowing through the reeds and the tree branches made any sort of sound for miles.

Until…

A lone figure stepped into the light. From the trees emerged an old woman. She was older than any woman who'd ever lived on Earth, and ten times as wise. Her age made her body slow, but not her mind. She pulled herself across the clearing, all the while chanting words that came from a language long dead, her fingers clutched around a cane made from the branch of a tree long extinct. She bears many names and has worn many faces, but this one (she hoped) would be her last. The years no longer felt like years, but seconds. Time had grown all but meaningless to her. Witch, she felt, was finished. But there was one last thing to do.

 _There is always one last thing to do before you die_.

While the moon rose, she crawled her way to the center where suddenly candles littered the ground around her, burning red flames. A large stone altar rose from the earth, flat and grey. Upon it appeared a majestic fish that thrashed violently from lack of water. It wriggled, all the while its scales reflected the moonlight in beautiful turquoise, green and silver. Its eyes were black and unseeing, it's mouth was gaping. It had the largest and most luxurious fins she'd ever laid eyes on. She looked at her work most fondly, with great pride and adoration, before she plunged the old stone knife down into the poor creature and ended its suffering forever. Witch collected the red droplets into a large stone bowl before the creature disappeared into a ribbon of silver-blue smoke, drifting toward the moon and an eternity of peace and joy. She almost smiled, but her worn face was too tired.

She set the stone bowl on the altar and breathed in deeply. She lifted her arms to the sky and began an ancient chant. She cried for the creatures that she had created, and one by one they emerged from the forest. A wolf, larger than any other. A bat circled overhead in a trance-like dance. Finally, her greatest creation, a dragon the size of a horse hissed and smoked his way across the clearing. She waved them all in farther, calling them to her, asking them to sacrifice themselves for her.

"Hey, Witch," Came a voice. Suddenly, she wasn't alone with her creations, but surrounded by Teen Titans. "I think it's time that you put away the magic wand." Robin delivered one of his classic tropes. Witch wasn't moved.

"Small fool," She hissed in a voice that rasped like a broken oak tree.

"Come' on Witch," Cyborg accused. "Who's got you under their thumb?"

Not surprisingly, the witch cackled. "Large fool," She answered. "Thank you for keeping my sacrifices safe for me. Now they can fulfill their duty." She taunted, darkly.

The moon was overhead them all now.

"Be careful, guys." Raven warned as they closed in on the old witch. "She's more powerful than any of us."

"But not all of us together," Robin corrected. "Titans! GO!"

They sprung into action, Raven first trying to restrain the old woman with magic while Starfire kept her eyes, glowing, on her form. Robin made to run at her with everything he had but Witch broke free of Raven's power. All three boys were thrown back about ten feet and Raven was shot backward from the ricochet. She barely missed an old oak. Starfire wasn't much better, thrown higher into the air than she'd like.

"You are _all_ fools!" Witch decided.

"What did you do to your master? Who was he?" Robin accused, now back on his feet and running toward her again.

She chuckled and the ground beneath him rumbled. "I never had a master. Those notes were false; a ploy to get you to care for my sacrifices before the time was right." She surveyed her work, as esteemed and proud of each of her mutations as she was the large fish that was once Harry. "Now the time _is_ right, and I will complete the ritual and ascend from this world, a Goddess Reborn!" She cackled like all old witches do, and suddenly the mutants were sprung into action. Ellie swooped down over Witch, the power of her huge bat wings was enough to knock the old woman over, and the tremors in the earth stopped. Witch's expression was delightfully shocked.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire called, concerned. "What are they saying?" Beast Boy, who was a leopard at the moment, returned to his human form.

He shook his head. "They aren't!"

"Cyborg!" Robin called at the same time. "She's weak! Her powers are strong but her body is fragile, keep her down! Raven! Stop that spell!" For at that moment the altar was sprung to life, the stone bowl was dancing with the now-silver blood of Harry. It writhed and shimmered at them, the moon above them turned red, switching colors with the blood on the altar. Witch's form was bathed in blood-red and silver light, she rose from her crumpled heap on the ground and stood.

"Oh no." Raven's eyes widened.

"Raven, look out!" Beast Boy's voice reached her from across the field. She saw in that moment the Dragon coming for her.

It was like everything was happening again. His talons were outstretched, his teeth bared; a loud roar escaped him as he pinned her to the ground. She almost sobbed when Witch's curse flew over them and into the oak she'd nearly hit earlier. The entire tree and three behind it were disintegrated, all aflame and burning to the ground. Beast Boy hadn't warned her about Kane, but about Witch's violent curse to keep Raven from stopping the ritual. She couldn't move under his massive weight upon her, he was a dragon the size of a horse after all. She stared into his amber eyes that watched her without hunger for the first time in a week. His hissing was gone, instead replaced with a gentle grumble in his throat. His nose touched her forehead gently before he released her and Beast Boy couldn't help but shout "I'm not going to repeat that!" Before angrily becoming a T-Rex and bearing down on Witch with fervor.

Now back on her feet and fueled by the moon and blood magic, Witch seemed unstoppable. She sent out a dark pulse of energy, and Cyborg's sonic cannon was temporarily disabled. He stared down at it in dismay.

"Damn!" He cursed.

" **Il-det moore fore-sah dest too vah roh**!" Witch hissed out. Suddenly Zachary, the wolf, was brought low to the ground with a whimper. The T-Rex nearly tripped over him so Beast Boy morphed quickly into a raven and flew over him in concern.

"What are you doing to our friend!?" Starfire gasped at the ancient crone.

She didn't speak to them again, though. Instead they threw starbolts, bombs, rocks and trees at her, to no avail. The evil sorceress pulled them all to the ground while poor Zach was brought to the altar, now screaming canine wails of pain and fear. They watched helplessly as Witch again raised her stone knife. " **Soon** _ **she**_ **will come, before the full moon, by the stroke of four, The Titans Will Fall together upon their enemy. Black is the sky that shelters us, white is the moon that sees us. One for blood that swims through the heart, one for the power that threads through the veins, one for the wisdom that partners the soul, and one for the divinity I shall come to claim. I am the daughter of the earth, I am child of the stars, I am the essence of humanity and I am risen to greater highs. No longer mortal, but now a goddess of the earth. I shall reign upon all things living, and I shall rewrite the course of this world!"**

Raven had had enough. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" She screamed long and loud, and from her scream the stone bowl broke apart.

Time literally stopped. Like, dude, literally. The moon above went completely black, and no one could see a thing, save for the stars in the sky. Through the darkness, a guttural cry reached them. It was Witch, she was broken like the bowl on the altar.

When the darkness upon the moon finally lifted, and a silver glow instead of red fell over them, they could see that Witch and her altar were gone, and the mutants were all returned to normal.

Well, almost.

Save for Harry, who was in a better place now, the three mutants were back in a human form, but like Beast Boy, they retained some of their mutant physical forms.

Zach, the wolf-man, was completely human except for the fluffy dog ears poking out of really shaggy grey hair. Ellie, the bat, still had an adorably scrunched up nose and pointed human ears. She blinked a few times and rejoiced in her returned sight. Finally, Kane, now a Drake forever, retained amber eyes and two short horns that poked out of jet-black hair. The horns were a very deep red, and might as well have been black, too.

At least they all got to keep the clothes they were wearing before they fully mutated, even if some of them (Like Kane's) were a little tattered or ripped.

Raven blinked, exasperated. _Are you freaking kidding me!?_ She thought, and somewhere in the forest, a tree fell where no one could hear it. "You're all… still not…"

"That's okay, Raven!" Ellie smiled. She wiggled her little pointed ears at raven, hoping that would ease the sorceress' mind.

Zach's ears flattened. "Sure."

Kane didn't speak, only mutely reaching up to tap his horns with normal colored fingertips.

"I'm sorry," Robin approached them. "We were so sure that you'd get your human forms back, and in the end we just put you in grave danger."

Starfire stood in the place where the altar once stood. "Oh, poor Harry." She whispered.

Everyone had a small moment of silence for the lost soul.

Kane finally stepped forward. "That's okay, you didn't know. None of us did."

"Well-" Ellie began to say _she knew_ all alone because of her psychic powers, but Zach shot her a look. "Yeah, we're all fine, don't worry."

"Well," Cyborg sighed. "I guess we, what? Go home?"

Zach frowned. "What about us?"

"Honestly, dude," Beast Boy pointed out. "In Jump City there are plenty of weirdos running around. You'll blend right in!" This didn't make the wolf any happier. "Hey, come on, you want _more_ help? You nearly took my leg off!"

Zach shrugged. "You were attacking me."

Beast Boy made to retaliate but instead (after seeing Raven's pained facial expression) laughed. "Dude, whatever."

…

Regardless of how much they already 'owed' the Titans for keeping them safe, locked away where they couldn't harm anyone and giving them back their minds before a huge battle (and sacrificial ritual) the Titan's let them stay one more night in the tower before they set out to do whatever it was that they needed to do. Instead of an awkward goodbye, the Titans treated their guests to an all-out movie night and food extravaganza, since frankly they hadn't eaten real food (other than fruit for Ellie and raw meat for the boys) in a long time.

They settled on a comedy-action spy-movie that got most of them rolling on the floor laughing. Turns out Ellie was hilarious (mostly because she wasn't trying to be) and Zach was incredibly partial to sitting next to her. Her beautiful dark brown hair and his shaggy grey went together nicely when she fell asleep on his shoulder and he rested his head on top of hers.

Raven again found herself nestled between two boys (again, one of them was Beast Boy), but this time Starfire was nestled at her feet and Raven played with her long, red hair. She and starfire had picked up the routine a while ago, where one or the other would play with each other's hair. Raven had found it rhythmic and sometimes it helped her focus and meditate, but this time she did it absently out of habit and actually enjoyed the film. Robin was busy making more popcorn halfway through because, frankly, they had so many mouths to feed and everyone was famished. Cyborg had fun and texted Bumblebee most of the time, keeping her updated on what had happened. He sent her some ' _Hope to see you this week_ ' texts and eventually put the phone away when Beast Boy half-scolded him for being a techno-junkie and not watching the movie.

When it was finally over, it was nearly sunrise. It had been a very long night and everyone was ready for bed, so Robin and Starfire left the room first with some short, tired goodbyes. Cyborg stretched and waved with a yawn. Ellie and Zach disappeared (together?) to find the 'guest rooms' that had been hastily thrown together for their stay. They weren't going to keep them in the glass prisons anymore, of course. Other than their cosmetic changes, the mutants did not exhibit any sort of powers or the ability to transform again.

Raven stood up from between the boys and yawned quietly. She couldn't hide the yawn under her hood this time, though, because they'd all changed into softer, comfier clothes. Raven was in soft, black leggings and a long sleeve in her traditional blue. Beast Boy and Kane (who was wearing some of Robin's clothes) were just in their regular sweats and T-shirts. She turned to the boys and awkwardly excused herself for the night.

"See you in the morning." She called behind her from the sliding door.

Beast Boy called back, "Herbal tea again?"

She smiled before answering, "Maybe some pancakes, I'll be starved."

Both of them heard the sliding door close before they scooted away from each other. "I know you heard what I said," Kane started.

"Yeah, I did." Beast Boy sighed next to him. "Look, all I'm asking is, could you _not_?"

Kane opened his mouth to argue, but he was so worn and so exhausted that he merely asked, "Why?"

"Raven is… special. She's this powerful girl from another world. Her first boyfriend was a Dragon, and he broke her heart and nearly her bones." Beast Boy stood up. "I'm asking you, as her friend, to leave her alone. Let it go."

He left him there with his thoughts and went to bed.

…

The next day, Kane was gone before breakfast. Raven caught herself searching for him and shook her head. _Stop, he's gone. That's the end of this nightmare_. But it wasn't really a nightmare for her. It was almost a test. A test of how she could deal with half-dragon men? Probably not. But she was proud of herself for never taking a biased stance against him. She had cared about him, spoke with him, taken care of his mental health as best as she could, and in the end he was healed. She'd never given up on him, even though his entire presence was a stab in the gut every time he looked at her or said her name.

She almost missed him, though. Not the dragon, but the man. She ate her pancakes delicately, but with gusto, much to the happiness of Beast Boy who was watching again, like always. While he felt satisfied that Raven was finally safe from that dragon-guy haunting her memories, what Beast Boy didn't know was that Kane had written her a note and slid it under her door before he disappeared.

 _Raven,_

 _I know that you're probably happy I'm gone, but before I go I just wanted to say_

 _I'm sorry for clawing you, then biting you, and all the screaming and the mean_

 _Things that I said… I wasn't in my right mind, and I know that without you I_

 _May have done something horrible… to you… again sorry. I can't believe how many_

 _Times I told you I wanted to eat you. Especially when all I want to do now is be_

 _Friends._

 _-Kane_

But Beast Boy didn't know that, and neither did anyone else. Raven promised herself that she would at the very least think about it, but honestly? Last night may have been the last time she'd ever see Kane again.

"Hey, Raven?" She was brought out of her thoughts by Beast Boy. Suddenly she realized that everyone else had left.

"Hm?" She replied, chewing on pancake.

He hesitated, scratching his head. "So, um… About last week, you know, before anything happened?" She waited. "I didn't mean to ask you if you were trying to lose weight. I'm sorry, I know I didn't say it before, but I'm sorry."

She swallowed and gave him a half-smile. "I eat, Beast Boy." She answered. "You just don't see it."

"What do you mean?"

She blushed a bit. "I may have a stash in my room of junk food… Under the bed. Sometimes I eat almost all day long… "

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

The two of them locked eyes for a moment before Beast Boy bombarded her with questions. "No way! What's your favorite kind? I like Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs right out of the box! Oh! And when I play videogames, I like the ones from that corner store-"

She remained quiet and listened, and even laughed a little a few times, and all was right again. But even after their revealing conversation, Beast Boy couldn't stop himself from continuously keeping a close eye on Raven, in almost everything that they did together.

END


	4. Interludes and Short Stories

**A/N: I've been thinking about starting another story arc, but thought I'd do little interludes here and there between 'episodes'. Let me know what you think. -Song**

* * *

When Starfire walks downtown among the shops and people, she gets weird looks. It's not because she's scantily clad on a cold winter morning, nor is it because of her orange skin and green eyes. It's mostly because she's walking a small worm/slug/grub thing behind her that's chewing on the fire hydrant, rather than marking its territory on it like a normal pet. Starfire was unaware of their stares. She didn't notice, and if she did she probably wouldn't really care. There was nothing, she thought, interesting about this moment in time. As quickly as it came the moment was over, and she continued on her walk. It doesn't really snow in Jump City, but in the winter it can get cold enough to get people into coats and scarves. Starfire wasn't paying attention to other people though, rather looking for one scarf in particular. She wove her way through the crowd and chastised Silky when he held her up at random intervals. One moment he's sticking his nose up at cigarette butts, the next he's nibbling on the bottom of the lamppost. Finally, after dragging him away from the combat boots of an innocent pedestrian, Starfire picked him up and carried him instead.

She would have normally flown around town rather than walk, but the air was cool and crisp on her tongue and her heart was too heavy to carry her away. She somberly passed drug stores, laundromats, and plenty of corner shops with rare and interesting oddities, but she ignored them all. Finally she reached a section of the city that was older and more refined. It held an air of history about it, where Starfire was in awe from the hushed brilliance of its splendor. She reached her destination, finally, and climbed the steps of the library with Silky in hand. Inside she found him, pouring over thick books and old newspapers, his red scarf on the table beside him.

"Robin, come. It's time to return home."

…

Cyborg's relationship with Bumblebee was the first real relationship he'd ever had. He couldn't say that about her, so he didn't, but their connection meant a lot to him. Their texts were flirty and fun, their hangouts were exciting and sizzling. He'd never felt this way about anyone. Which is why he was extra frustrated when they'd gotten in a fight last night over text message.

Who gets in a fight over text?

He punched his way through four punching bags and tried not to let it get to him too badly. He met every battle they fought with %110 energy, because he'd rather direct it toward good things than bad. He thought about asking Beast Boy about Bee, but thought that BB wasn't exactly the kind of guy to go to for relationship advice. He thought about asking Robin, but honestly, the Rob/Star relationship only functioned because Starfire was the one in charge of it. So, he went to Starfire, who was incredibly helpful and confusing.

"You must remind our friend Bee that you are happiest when with her. Like a Glornumph Zorta! When battling with a mate, the Glornumph Zorta simply-"

"Uh, Star? I don't really want to know." Cyborg interrupted quickly.

She tilted her head in confusion but continued, "Very well," she said. "I think that perhaps a real 'face-to-face' conversation would be most beneficial for the situation."

He promised her he'd try.

And it seemed like everything had smoothed over on his visit to Titan's East tower, even though the guys of Titan's East loved giving him crap over how often that they saw him there. Speedy would wink and Aqualad would give him a subtle knuckle bump. Mas Y Menos were 'thumbs up' kind of guys. Cyborg didn't mention that he was there because he'd really pissed her off this time.

"So we're really good?" He asked for the hundredth time.

She smiled, "Yeah, Sparky. We good." And kissed him before he left.

…

Beast Boy fumbled with the cords behind the TV, searching desperately for the remote. Maybe it had fallen back behind there again? He vaguely thought about dusting or vacuuming the damn place, because once again his arm came out from behind the TV covered in dust bunnies.

"Nope…" he thought aloud. "Not here either."

He smelled her before he saw her. "What are you doing, now?"

He got to his feet and brushed his arms and jeans off. "The remote is missing again."

Raven rolled her gorgeous violet eyes. _Gorgeous? Did I really think that just now?_ "At least you're not as vocal about it this time. Where did you last see it?"

He shrugged. "I passed out last night in front of the TV. Must've dropped it somewhere, but it's not in any place that makes sense."

"Which brought you to go looking _behind_ the TV?"

He shrugged again. "Was worth a shot."

"But didn't get any results?" She asked.

He showed her his empty hands. "Clearly."

She rolled her eyes again. "Okay, hold on."

With a puzzled expression he watched her close her eyes, and with an amazed expression, saw the remote come careening through the wall and into his open, empty hands. "W-what!" He accused. "You've been a TV remote tracker this whole time and let us all _suffer_?!"

"It was in your room, idiot. You must've brought it back with you in the night." She turned to walk away but he playfully grabbed her robe.

"No, no, no! You're not running away that easily!" He laughed at her disgruntled expression. "This is some HUGE news!"

"Beast Boy, let go!" She hissed. He only laughed harder. On accident he pulled her too close when she turned to push him away and they ended up in a playful-wrestling-type hug.

He almost held her there, thought real hard about it for two seconds but she flicked him in the head, causing him to snap back a bit and release her. "Ow!" He complained. "I hate that new power of yours." Raven was enjoying the fact that she had a new, small channel of energy pulses she could use against them without real damage.

"It comes in handy." She growled back and turned on her heel to walk away. Beast Boy's eyes instinctively followed her. It was hard to tell, but under her robes he thought he could recognize the sway of her hips when she stalked away from him like that. Animal noises inside him stirred.

He snapped his attention away from her in shame. _Stop that_. He thought. _This whole thing has gone on long enough. You're crossing some pretty serious lines, now_. Pulling her in like that had really been an accident, but wanting her to stay was becoming a new thing in his mind. His emotions were betraying him, and he felt guilty all the time now. He'd stopped watching her eat, and focused instead on other things. Like the wall, or the ceiling.

The TV remote in his hands suddenly held no interest, and he lost his appetite for mindless entertainment. He found himself glancing again at the door to the living room where Raven had just exited, and again in shame, flopped down on the couch with an exasperated sigh.

* * *

 **Just the Titan's doing Titan things. I like to have moments that show their emotional sides, rather than just kicking ass and taking names.**


End file.
